Abstract

We investigate the combined effects of transmembrane proteins and the subjacent cytoskeleton on the dynamics of phase separation in multicomponent lipid bilayers using computer simulations of a particle-based implicit solvent model for lipidmembranes with soft-core interactions. We find that microphase separation can be achieved by the protein confinement by the cytoskeleton. Our results have relevance to the finite size of lipid rafts in the plasmamembrane of mammalian cells.

We acknowledge the financial support from the National Science Foundation (Award Nos. DMR-0812470 and DMR-0755447) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (Award No. R15GM106326). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Article outline:I. INTRODUCTIONII. MODEL AND SIMULATION DETAILSIII. RESULTSA. Protein confinement by the cytoskeletonB. Effect of protein density on the kinetics of domain growthC. Effect of cytoskeleton proximity and average corral size on the kinetics of domain growthIV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION